Return to the Tylosaurus dig site!!

[indianasmith]

Seeing all those big bones Monday got me curious as to whether any more of the skeleton ever washed into the creek - the last 10 feet or so of tail were buried under considerable overburden (6' - 10') and we never had gone back and tried to dig them out.  It was unseasonably cool this AM, so I took off with a former student of mine just to see if we could find anything.  We found three tail vertebrae; two were in the straightaway directly downstream from the site; the other had washed around the corner.  Also found a jawbone from a giant prehistoric fish.  A very fun morning!!!


Here is the first vertebrae in situ . . .


I found this one about 100 feet downstream from the original site . . .


And this one was about 50 feet away . . .


Here are all three vertebrae side by side.  The double indentions on the bottom of each one mark them as tail vertebrae.  A V-shaped bone called the "chevron" fit underneath them.


Here is a jaw section from a large Cretaceous fish, most likely Xiphactinus.

First good fossils I have found in ages!

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

very cool, my uncle use dtio take me to digs in England (roman usually) and looking for fossil teeth in the riverbed.

[Bushma]

OK,how are you spottimg these?

I likely would have passed these by and just assumed they were rocks like any other.

[indianasmith]

I've collected fossils and artifacts since I was 12 years old.  I've developed a real eye for them over the years!

[Jack]

Very cool Indy!  You could re-assemble all those bones and have that thing on display in your living room 

[Flangepart]

I've collected fossils and artifacts since I was 12 years old.  I've developed a real eye for them over the years!

From one fossil to another, mayhaps?

[Umaril Has Returned]

I've collected fossils and artifacts since I was 12 years old.  I've developed a real eye for them over the years!

I'll say you've developed an eye for fossils!